Beginner guide
How to play chess
If you have never played a single game, you are in the right place. By the end of this page you will know how to set up the board, how every piece moves, and how to win. It really does only take a few minutes.
1. Setting up the board
Place the board so that each player has a light square in the bottom-right corner — “white on the right.” The pieces line up on the two rows nearest each player. Rooks go in the corners, then knights, then bishops, then the queen and king in the middle. The easy rule for the royals: the queen goes on her own colour (the white queen on a light square, the black queen on a dark square), and the king takes the square beside her.
2. How the pieces move
Each type of piece moves in its own way. In every diagram below, the dots show where that piece could move from the middle of an empty board. A piece (except the knight) cannot jump over others, and it captures by landing on an enemy piece’s square.
The rook
The rook moves in straight lines — any number of squares up, down, left, or right.
The bishop
The bishop moves diagonally, any number of squares. Each bishop stays on one colour for the entire game.
The queen
The queen is the most powerful piece: she combines the rook and bishop, moving any number of squares in a straight line or diagonally.
The knight
The knight moves in an L-shape: two squares one way, then one square at a right angle. It is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. This is the move beginners find strangest — so take a moment with the diagram.
The king
The king moves one square in any direction. He is the most important piece — if he is trapped, the game is over — so he moves carefully.
The pawn
Pawns are unusual. They move straight forward one square (or two squares on their very first move), but they capture diagonally — one square forward-left or forward-right. Pawns never move backward.
3. Check & checkmate
When a king is under attack, it is in check. You must respond immediately — move the king to safety, block the attack, or capture the attacking piece. If there is no legal way to escape the attack, it is checkmate and the game ends. That is how you win: not by capturing the king, but by leaving it with nowhere to go.
4. Special moves
Three moves surprise new players:
- Castling — once per game, if neither the king nor a rook has moved and the squares between them are empty, the king slides two squares toward the rook and the rook hops to the king’s other side. It tucks your king into safety. You may have seen it written as Book moveA known opening move from established theory — solid, but it's memorised theory rather than your own calculation..
- En passant — a special pawn capture: if an enemy pawn dashes two squares forward and lands right beside your pawn, you may capture it as if it had only moved one square — but only on the very next turn.
- Promotion — if one of your pawns reaches the far end of the board, it transforms into any piece you choose (almost always a queen). A humble pawn can become your most powerful piece.
5. Draws — when nobody wins
Not every game ends in a win. The most common surprise is stalemate: if the player to move has no legal move but is not in check, the game is a draw — even if they have far less material. Games are also drawn by agreement, by repeating the same position three times, or when there are too few pieces left to checkmate.
6. What to do next
That is the whole rulebook. The fastest way to improve from here is to play, then look back at what happened — which is exactly what ChessInt does for you. Two good next steps:
- Learn to read the moves in a game with how to read chess notation.
- When a term confuses you, the glossary explains it in one sentence.
Frequently asked questions
Is chess hard to learn?
The rules of chess take about 20 minutes to learn — how the pieces move and how to win. Getting good takes longer, but you can play a full game the same day you learn. This guide covers everything you need to start.
Which colour goes first in chess?
White always moves first, then players alternate turns. You must move on your turn — you can never skip.
How do you win at chess?
You win by checkmate: attacking the opponent's king so that it cannot escape capture on the next move. The king is never actually captured — the game ends the moment escape is impossible.
What is the easiest piece to learn?
The rook moves in straight lines and the bishop moves diagonally — both are simple. The knight, which jumps in an L-shape, is the one most beginners find tricky at first.